The Memorial
by Random Flyer
Summary: Looking Glass AU, One shot, Kakashi and Rin visit the memorial of their teammate and each make a promise. Please R&R.


**A/N: This is another one-shot connected with my previous story "Looking Glass" and it will probably make more sense if you read that first.**

 **I do not own Naruto**

 **The Memorial**

The monument lay almost untouched, though the ground around it was charred and gouged, debris from weeks of battle strewn across the churned field. The once high-polished surface was dulled with a thick layer of dust and dirt, but otherwise the memorial for Konoha's dead was unmarked. A quick wash would set the stone aright and return it to its previous state.

Rin crouched before the monument, running a hand over the engraved surface. The gesture brushed away the dust leaving trails of semi-polished rock in its wake. She wiped off the area she knew the name would be. This stone was not much different than the one in her own village. Some of the names were different, but the overall number seemed to be the same. Perhaps, all things really did balance out with time.

In her own world, Rin had rarely visited the memorial to remember Obito. They'd had a body and as a result a grave so she'd always visited that to remember her friend. Here in this world, they'd never been able to recover the body, so all they had was the memorial.

Kakashi crouched down next to her, movements slow and stiff. He was still recovering from the invasion and the events that led Rin to this world, though he was much improved in the nearly two weeks since the Mirror's destruction. Reaching out a hand, he swiped down the length of the monument's surfaces, wiping off dust in a long gesture. Together they cleaned of the face of the stone revealing the long list of names printed in neat, small letters. Obito's was part way down on the right hand side, Rin found it easily.

"Obito-niisan, I brought Rin to visit," Kakashi said, voice soft almost inaudible. "She's not quite our Rin, but she's as good as."

Rin huffed a laugh. The sting was still there, seeing Obito's name on this monument, sharpened by the fact that there was no grave here to visit, but it was an old pain. Rin had years of experience visiting her own Obito's grave and the pain was bearable and familiar. Instead of focusing on Obito's name, she ran her finger down the names surrounding it, all shinobi killed in the same war.

"Many changes?" Kakashi asked after a long moment of silence.

Rin nodded. "A few additions and a few absences." Almost the entire Uchiha clan was listed further down on the memorial. That was one change that shocked Rin the most. She had several friends in the Uchiha clan. Still, considering how the uprising went in her world, it was not difficult to imagine it going worse if just a few things were different.

Silence fell again as they stared at the list of names. The distant noise of hammering and reconstruction work drifted in and out with the wind. Rin glanced around the field and the damage surrounding them. This would be one of the last places to be repaired. Military defenses in case of any other attacks came first with houses and stores a very close second. All able bodied members of Konoha helped, except those on security patrols. Even nearby villages sent teams of people to aid their neighbor. In the time that passed since the invasion, Konoha made a surprising amount of progress, but it would be years before everything was back to normal.

Rin stood, pushing up to her feet and stepping back from the monument with a sidelong glance to her friend. Kakashi had that look in his eye, the same one he got when he was thinking of the past. Her Kakashi would get that look, but it was faded, healed. This Kakashi didn't have the benefit of a friend and mentor to help him get past his mistakes. Glancing over her shoulder to one of the nearby cemeteries, Rin gestured toward it.

"I'm going over to the grave for a moment, I'll be right back," Rin said.

Kakashi glanced at her, understanding clearing his eye. "Want company?"

Rin shook her head, "No, I'd rather do this alone."

One short nod and Kakashi looked back at the monument. "I'll be here."

Rin picked her way across the field, skirting the larger debris and damage. The shinobi cemetery was closest to the memorial positioned between the monument and the civilian cemetery. A line of trees and a wall separated the memorial lawn from the enclosed cemetery. Several of the trees lay on their sides, uprooted from the battle and destroying a part of the wall separating the cemetery from the memorial lawn at the edge of the training fields. Rin climbed through the hole, not bothering with the lengthy walk around to the front entrance.

The cemetery was almost completely untouched with only minor damage at the edges to the wall and debris that was basted inside. There was no evidence any fighting had actually taken place inside the cemetery, though, and it made Rin think that perhaps the combatants on both sides had avoided clashing on this ground out of respect for the dead.

The cemetery itself was large, comparable to the training fields in size. Some areas were sectioned off according to clan, but the rest of the graves were ordered by date. Rin glanced down at the nearest stones, looking for the death date to orientate herself. After walking through the rows for several minutes Rin finally found the right stone. She stood and stared at it, a sense of displacement flitting through her like what she had experienced on her initial arrival to this Konoha. The name stretched across the top of the stone in bold letters: NOHARA RIN.

The stone was recently cleaned, still looking new compared to some of the stones around it. Flowers, no more than a day old, sat in a vase off-set in front of the stone marker. Rin knew it had to be Kakashi. She wasn't sure when he'd done it. They'd been together almost constantly since coming through the Mirror. The council, or what remained of it, were still too suspicious of her and the Kyuubi to allow her in the city without an escort and Kakashi was still too over-protective to trust others, including their ANBU guard, with her safety. Rin understood the wariness to some degree, but was relieved it was Kakashi acting as her primary escort and body guard. Despite the near constant company with each other, it seemed Kakashi still managed to slip away and take care of this Rin's grave.

"I can't decide whether I'm angry with you or not," Rin said, staring down at the grave bearing her name. Silence responded back, less an indication of how alone Rin was in the cemetery and more reflective of her own indecision.

"Kakashi told me what happened and the Sandaime let me read the reports. There's still too many holes in what they know about the whole event, why you decided the only way to end it was killing yourself." Rin crossed her arms with a frustrated huff, looking around the nearly untouched graveyard. Anyone who knew the full story, both this world's Rin and the enemy shinobi involved took the answers with them to the grave. If only there was a way to speak with the dead, if there was it was probably forbidden.

"Whatever they were planning it must have been a serious threat. I can't imagine you…myself, taking such drastic measures otherwise…but did you have to use Kakashi to do it? Couldn't you have found any other way to kill yourself? Do you realize what that did to him? He still hasn't gotten over it." Rin looked toward the memorial field, aware of how loud her voice had grown.

Clenching her jaw, Rin uncrossed her arms squeezing her fists at her side till fingernails bit into her palms. She took several deep breaths releasing the frustration with her younger self from this world and the dearth of answers surrounding the event that nearly shattered her friend. Learning what she had of the incident at least explained some of why this Kakashi had turned out the way he was. The breeze picked up, sweeping in sounds of construction work from over the wall.

In a sudden moment of clarity, Rin understood. This must have been what Minato-sensei felt when he discovered what his alternate-self did to Naruto, turning Naruto into a Jinchuricki. Minato never said specifically that it was his alternate, but Rin saw the seal and she was familiar enough with her sensei's work to recognize it. It could only have been the worst of situations to make that necessary. It must have been the same with her other-self, only the very worst of scenarios could lead to doing that to her friend.

Rin knelt down, brushing a few stray leaves off the stone. She didn't know if Minato-sensei forgave himself for the actions of his alternate, but she did know he hadn't let that stop him from being a father to Naruto. He hadn't dwelled on it.

Rin reached up and grabbed the shard of chakra crystal hanging from her neck. It was one of the larger pieces left from the Mirror, a last piece of her home in a sense. She squeezed her eyes shut and wished Minato-sensei was there to give advice. But he wasn't.

"It was a terrible thing to do," Rin said to her other-self, voice quiet, lacking the harsh cut from moments ago. "And I still don't understand why you did it, but…I think there must not have been any other choice, at least I hope there wasn't. Maybe it came down to a choice between protecting the village and protecting Kakashi's feelings." If that were the case, she could imagine herself choosing the village first. Kakashi would want her to no matter the harm to himself.

Shaking her head, Rin stood. "There's no way to change it now and dwelling on it will only continue the hurt. I am a little angry, but I'll get past that. It'll just take time." She glanced up toward the memorial field where Kakashi was waiting, then looked back to her own grave. "I'm going to protect him, I promise, for both of us."

xXxXx

Kakashi listen to Rin walk away, he glanced back and watched her climb through the wall into the cemetery. No doubt the ANBU guarding them left with her, she was the primary one for protection, though the council had decided he needed a guard almost as much as she did at the moment. After all, he was one of the few who had in-depth knowledge of the Mirror and what lay beyond it, or at least that was the excuse they gave. Kakashi could read between the lines, though. How could they know if it really was _their_ Kakashi that returned through the Mirror?

It didn't matter. This was a trial period. Trust would come with time and as the village healed from the recent invasion. The ANBU guard was also there mainly to protect them as well to keep an eye on them. It helped that the ANBU assigned was Tenzo, someone Kakashi himself knew and trusted.

Kakashi turned back to the monument, eyes easily finding Obito's name. "She's not the same as our Rin," he said, repeating his earlier sentiment. "She's a little harder, but still kind. You can tell they were the same person when they were younger, if that makes sense. This Rin just got the chance to grow up." He fell silent, blinking quickly with his one eye as his gaze fell to the ground. His brow furrowed for a long moment before he could look back to the name carved in stone.

"You would've like her." Kakashi stopped, unable to continue. There were times sitting with Rin at the table and having dinner, it was almost like the worst things hadn't happened. It was as if Obito had just stepped out for something at the store and would be back any moment and the three of them would be together again.

The minutes ticked by as Kakashi stood and tried to imagine what his friend would say, how Obito would feel about the situation. It was a good thing he was alone, Kakashi didn't think his reputation would survive if anyone else saw him here, struggling to talk to a rock. Of course, he wasn't the only shinobi in Konoha that had a good friend's name carved on this memorial and he wasn't the only one who had bitter regrets, either. More people would probably understand than he initially thought.

Shaking his head, Kakashi focused back on the present. He didn't want to leave Rin alone for too long. Even if she did have an ANBU guard and the village security was air tight after the invasion, Kakashi just didn't want to risk anything happening to her.

Kakashi crouched down in front of the monument, putting a hand out and over Obito's name. "You know what it feels like, having her here again?" he said, his voice pitched low, imparting a secret to his long departed friend. He paused a moment as though an answer would really come. "It feels like a second chance. I didn't even think second chances existed anymore, not really."

A sound from behind drew his glance and Kakashi saw Rin dropping lightly to the ground from the wall. Kakashi pushed to his feet. "Don't worry, Obito-niisan, this time I'm going to protect her, no matter what or who stands in my way." He turned and hurried to his friend. He wasn't going to waste this second chance.

 **::The End…Maybe::**

 **Please read and review. Feedback, suggestions, commentary, etc. are all widely appreciated.**


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